The Life skills teachers created a snack cart project this summer to help the life skill students with real world learning during the regular school year. The snack carts go around everyday during advisory. This project helps the life skills students practice good customer service. It also helps them learn how to track inventory and add up totals then give back change.  Collin Fitzgerald enjoys preparing the students with real world learning. 

“The crux of it all is to provide an authentic hands-on real world experience for the life skills students,” Fitzgerald said. 

The life skills department has four carts that each go around to a separate part of the building. Usually there are three students and a teacher or para per cart. 

Each student has a different job to do as they travel around the building. One student is doing the customer service aspect by knocking on the teachers doors and asking them if they would like to buy anything from the snack cart. The next student’s job is to keep a tally of all the items they sell that day and count the change. The third student is the one who pushes the cart and keeps the tempo under control. Senior Joshua Ehlenberger-Vanhoye loves keeping track of all the items that are sold. 

“Mostly tallying them,” Ehlenberger-Vanhoye said.

The life skills program has seen positive outcomes from both the students and the teachers. The teachers can request items to be added to the snack cart. The students who love interacting with others really thrive when they go around asking the teachers if they want a snack. Senior Elijah Benz likes talking to the teachers about money. 

“About the money like an interesting one is like a half dollar one and a two dollar bill one,” Benz said.

Currently the snack cart has sodas, waters, sweet and unsweetened tea and the snacks range from healthy sinky pop all the way to candy bars. As the snack cart has become a normal thing teachers have also started requesting things to be added to the snack cart. Mr. Fitzgerald believes the options on the snack cart will continue to grow.

“We have added a few things by popular demand,” Fitzgerald said.  

The long term goal with the snack cart is hopefully to prepare life skill students to be able to talk about unit prices and profits.